Method and apparatus for telephonically accessing and navigating the internet

ABSTRACT

A method for accessing and browsing the internet through the use of a telephone and the associated DTMF signals is disclosed. The preferred embodiment provides a system that converts the information content of a web page from text to speech (voice signals), signals the hyperlink selections of a web page in an audio manner, and allows selection of the hyperlinks through the use of DTMF signals generated from a telephone keypad. Upon receiving a DTMF signal corresponding to a hyperlink, the corresponding web page is fetched and again delivered to the user via one of the available delivery methods such as voice, fax-on-demand, electronic mail, or regular mail.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/205,269, filed Dec. 4, 1998, nowU.S. Pat. No. 6,366,650, issued Feb. 4, 2002 which is a continuation ofSer. No. 08/609,699, filed Mar. 1, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,392issued Sep. 14, 1999.

REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

A Microfiche Appendix conforming to the standards set forth in 37 CFR §1.96(c)(2) is attached to the parent application Ser. No. 08/609,669 andis hereby incorporated by reference. The Microfiche Appendix includesfour microfiche including an Appendix A microfiche, an Appendix Bmicrofiche, an Appendix C microfiche and an Appendix D microfiche. TheAppendix A microfiche includes nine frames. The Appendix B microficheincludes four frames. The Appendix C microfiche includes four frames.The Appendix D microfiche includes 29 frames.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to methods for retrievinginformation from an interconnected network and for accessing anddelivering the retrieved information to a user, and, more particularly,a method for accessing and retrieving information from an interconnectednetwork such as the internet via a telephone in response to the user'srequest and for delivering the information via voice, fax-on-demand,e-mail, and other means to the user.

2. Background Art

Under the conventional method of accessing information on aninterconnected network such as the internet, the user is required tohave a certain amount of computer software and hardware and is expectedto have a certain level of computer expertise before the user cansuccessfully access (or browse) a wide range of information nowavailable on the internet. If the user does not have the necessaryhardware and the appropriate software to direct the computer toestablish a connection to the internet via a modem or a directconnection to the internet, the user would then have no other meansavailable to him or her for accessing the internet.

Given the amount of information now readily available on the internet,having the ability to access the internet becomes a matter ofconvenience as well as a matter of having access to an invaluableinformation source.

Additionally, from a company or an organization point of view, it isadvantageous to direct customers to a centralized information databaseand thereby necessitating the maintenance of only one database ratherthan multiple databases.

The software and hardware requirement for accessing the internet createsa barrier for most people to take advantages of this information source.Prior art systems overcome this problem by providing a telephonefax-on-demand system where a user uses a telephone to dial into acompany's web page and directs the system to fax the web page back tothe user. However, the manner in operating this type of system istedious and time consuming. In order for the user to access a hyperlinkon the web page, the first web page needs to be faxed back to the userwith the hyperlinks numerically annotated for reference. The user thencalls a second time (or waits for the first fax page to arrive onanother line) to access subsequent web pages numerically using the nownumbered hyperlinks.

It is thus clear that a better system is needed to access and browse theinternet in an inexpensive and efficient manner.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a methodfor accessing and browsing the internet through the use of a telephone.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method foraccessing and browsing the internet by converting the informationcontent of a web page to voice format.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a methodfor signaling the user in an audio manner the hyperlink selections in aweb page.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a methodfor accessing and browsing the internet where the information content ofa web page may be provided to the user via voice format, fax-on-demand,e-mail, or regular mail.

Briefly, a method for accessing and browsing the internet through theuse of a telephone is disclosed. The preferred embodiment of the presentinvention provides a method that comprises receiving a first requesttransmitted from a telephone and transmitting a first response to thetelephone, the first response comprising voice signals. The firstrequest comprises data signals that correspond to a first unique addressof a first data file residing on the computer network. The first datafile comprises a first hyperlink. The voice signals of the firstresponse correspond to text stored in the first data file. The methodfurther comprises generating the voice signals that correspond to thetext stored in the first data file. The method further comprises agenerating predetermined signals preceding the first hyperlink toindicate the first hyperlink.

An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method foraccessing and browsing the internet through the use of a telephone.

Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a methodfor accessing and browsing the internet by converting the informationcontent of a web page to voice format.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides amethod for signaling the user in an audio manner the hyperlinkselections in a web page.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides amethod for accessing and browsing the internet where the informationcontent of a web page may be provided to the user via voice format,fax-on-demand, e-mail, or regular mail.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will nodoubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after havingread the following illustrations and detailed description of thepreferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates the components of the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 shows the subsystems for the voice browser of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 illustrates the subsystems of the HTree Generator/Web browser;

FIG. 4 shows the components of the Voice Data Management System; and

FIG. 5 illustrates the components of the Fax Data Management System.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, the preferred embodiment of the present inventionis operated by a caller 10 using a telephone 12 to dial into a serverhaving telephonic interfacing software and hardware. The server providesaudio directions to the caller and provides a number of options whichmay be selected by the corresponding DTMF tones generated through theuse of a telephone keypad. By pressing a number on the keypadcorresponding to the desired option, the caller selects one of theseveral available options. The server then receives the DTMF tone,converts the tone to a corresponding DTMF code, identifies the optioncorresponding to the code, and executes the action corresponding to theselected option. In this manner, the caller is able to direct the serverto take certain available actions.

One of the available actions is to direct a voice browser 18 to navigatethe internet 20. By selecting the voice browser, the caller is providedwith an audio readback of a default web page where the available linksto other web pages are read back to the user and are indicated by aspecial audio signal such as a short duration tone signal, a beep, a“bong” sound, etc.

For example, referring to Appendix D illustrating a listing of the codeof the preferred embodiment as described below, instructions (startingfrom page 13 of Appendix D) are provided to direct a user to navigatethrough available documents and the hyperlinks therein. By repetitivelyselecting documents and the hyperlinks contained therein, the user cannavigate the entire internet.

User Interface for Operating the Voice Web

To operate the preferred embodiment of the present invention, atouch-tone phone and the phone number to access a server are all that isrequired.

The voice browser provides a series of audio menus to guide the callerto retrieve documents or web pages from the internet. Several optionsare provided at each menu and the caller may make a selection bypressing the corresponding key(s) on the telephone. The opening menu mayrequest a password before allowing the caller to access the system.

For inputs requiring specific spelling of the information being entered(e.g. e-mail address, name, street address, etc.), each character can bedefined by pressing a two-key combination. The first key indicates thekey where the letter appears, and the second key indicates the positionit occurs on that key. For example, the letter “A” is defined as 21, “B”is defined as 22, “C” is defined as 23, “D” is defined as 31, etc.However, the letters “Q” and “Z” are not defined on a telephone keypadand they may be assigned by special two-key combinations. In thepreferred embodiment, the letter “Q” is defined as 17 and the letter “Z”is defined as 19. Other special characters may be assigned as well. Forexample the “@” sign is defined as 12, the “_” character is defined as18, the “.” (period) is defined as 13, and a “ ” (space) is defined as11.

The actual interface between the voice browser and the telephonyinterfacing hardware is expected to vary according to theimplementation. There are two issues involved here. One issue involvesinterface control, namely how the software commands are accepted by theinterface and how errors or exceptions are signaled. The other issueinvolves audio encoding—how audio (e.g. voice) data is represented atthe interface. For example, the Rockwell chip set utilizes aHayes-compatible command set which is extended for fax and voiceoperations, and audio data is encoded in the Adaptive Differential PulseCoded Modulation (ADPCM) format. Under a Unix system, ioctl( ) commandsmay be used to manipulate the audio interface. There may be anotherprotocol for ISDN lines as well.

Voice Web

Referring to FIG. 2, the voice browser is software driven and iscomposed of several cooperating subsystems. From the main engine 22,depending on the selection made or the scheduling algorithm, either theCall Menu Script Interpreter 24 or the document delivery subsystem 26may be activated.

The Call Menu Script Interpreter (CMSI) guides a caller through a seriesof call menus and plays voice segments of retrieved web pages ordocuments to the caller. It responds to the caller's touch toneselection and drives the HTree Generator/Web Browser 28. The task isaccomplished by first directing the web browser to retrieve the desiredweb page(s) from the internet. The HTree Generator then converts theretrieved web page into an HTree which is a data structure storing webpage data in a particular format conducive for conversion into voiceformat. The CMSI then traverses the HTree, sending HTree segments to theVoice Data Management Subsystem (Voice DMS) 38. The Voice DMS containspre-recorded texts or text-strings. For the texts or text-strings not inthe Voice DMS, a text-to-speech engine is provided to convert the textto speech. The information content of the web page is then delivered tothe caller in the voice format. Optionally, the web page can also bedelivered to the caller in other available methods, or it can be markedas a document request job for later processing. If the caller is callingfrom a phone line connected to a fax machine, the web page can beimmediately delivered to the caller via the fax machine.

The web browser 28 of the preferred embodiment is a general web browsermodified to interface with the HTree Generator and to access theinternet 20. The web page or documents that may be readily accessed bythe caller are indexed by document-ID, title, or Universal ResourceLocator (URL) and stored in a database.

The document delivery subsystem 26 responds to the several availablemethods for delivering the web page to the caller. These methods includedelivery via fax, electronic mail, and regular postal mail. The documentdelivery subsystem 26 also may directly retrieve a web page as selectedby a caller and deliver the information to the caller via one of theavailable delivery methods.

In the case of delivery by fax, the documents may be directly retrievedby a Fax Data Management Subsystem (Fax DMS) where the web pages in theHTML format may be converted to the PostScript format and then from thePostScript format to TIFF image format.

In the case of delivery by e-mail, documents may be directly retrievedby an E-Mail Data Management Subsystem where web pages in the HTMLformat may be converted to straight ASCII text or to the PostScriptformat.

Call Menu Script Interpreter

The Call Menu Script Interpreter (CMSI) guides the caller through aseries of call menus via voice prompts and plays voice segments of aretrieved web page to the caller. The caller interacts with the CMSI bygenerating DTMF tones from the caller's touch-tone keypad. The DTMFtones are converted into ASCII text usually by the telephony interfacehardware. In one embodiment, the conversion from DTMF tones to ASCIItext is performed by a voice modem.

In order to carry out all of the tasks, the CMSI is implementedutilizing a set of software registers and instructions. A softwareregister may be readable, writable, markable, or nav-writable where anav-writable register allows the navigational mechanism of the browserto write to it. Registers which can be written by the DTMF-convertedASCII text are referred to as “caller-writable registers.” Theseregisters include the DocID, FaxNum, ExtNum, ExtName, Passwd, Userid,and Selection registers. Registers for which the ASCII text can beconverted into voice are termed “caller-readable registers”. Theseregisters include the DocId, FaxNum, ExtNum, ExtName, and Titleregisters. Markable registers include the DocId and URL registers. Thenav-writable registers include the DocId, URL, Title, MarkedNumDoc,MaxNumDoc, and MaxRepeatInput registers.

There is also an instruction set associated with the registers. Thereare four basic categories of instructions: Execution Controlinstructions, Caller Register instructions, Audio Output instructions,and Miscellaneous instructions. Some of the more basic instructions arethe Play instruction which plays the content of a register, a prompt, ora web page; the Get instruction which gets the DTMF input into aregister; the Mark instruction which marks a page or document accordingto a URL or DocId; the Goto instruction which unconditionally jumps to adifferent location in the script; and the Selection instruction whichjumps if a given register matches a given DTMF string. Appendix Aattached herein explains each of the registers and instructions. Thepreferred embodiment is not limited to the listed registers andinstructions in Appendix A. New instructions and/or registers can bereadily added to accommodate new features or functionalities.

As the caller navigates through the web, a URL list is kept. A maximumsize limit is imposed on the URL list where a First-In-First-Out systemis maintained. Additionally, each URL entry in the URL list may have anassociated HTree. There is an HTree cache for all the HTree entries. Forthe HTree cache, if there is a limitation in size, the least recentlyused entry is deleted first.

HTree Generator/Web Browser

The HTree Generator/Web Browser (hereinafter “HTree Generator”) is theVoice Browser's agent for accessing the World-Wide-Web. It is similar toa GUI-based web browser except that the user interface is replaced by anaudio interface residing within the CMSI. The HTree Generator is drivenby the CMSI. Referring to FIG. 3, the HTree Generator 28 is generallycomprised of a generator interface component 50, an HTree Converter 52,and a web browser 54. The CMSI sends a URL 56 to the HTree Generator 28.The generator interface 50 receives the URL and sends the URL to the webbrowser 54 to retrieve the web page or document via one of the severalavailable methods (e.g. FTP and HTTP). The HTree Converter 52 convertsthe retrieved web page/document into an HTree, and the HTree is sent tothe CMSI. Thus, regardless of the format of the retrieve document, itcan be converted into HTree format for processing.

At its highest level, an HTree contains a series of HTree sentences. AnHTree sentence can comprise several HTree segments which when strungtogether forms a complete sentence in the language of choice includingEnglish and Spanish. The top level structure, represented by the symbol_HTree, represents a given web page where the structure may include theURL of the page, its title, and it may include a number of linked lists.Appendix B attached herein provides a full explanation of the HTreestructure.

Voice Data Management Subsystem

The Voice Data Management Subsystem (Voice DMS) provides audio segmentsto the CMSI for the given text segments. Referring to FIG. 4, the maininterface between the Voice DMS and the CMSI is the voice interface 60.The voice interface 60 receives a text string from the CMSI and passesit to the Voice database 64 to retrieve the corresponding digitallyencoded voice pattern. The voice interface 60 then returns the encodedvoice pattern 66 to the CMSI. If the voice interface does not find thetext string in the Voice database, it will send the text string to theText-To-Speech subsystem 68 to generate the digitally encoded voicepattern for that text string. The generated voice pattern is passed tothe voice interface to pass to the CMSI. Whenever the Text-To-Speechsubsystem generates a voice pattern for a text string, the text stringand the generated voice pattern is passed to the Voice database andstored for future reference.

Some of the voice interface's functions for driving the applicationprogram interface (API) include voiceopen, voiceget and voiceclose. Thevoiceopen function creates a voice handle for a given URL that enablesthe CMSI to keep track of the data during a session. The voicegetoperation uses the voice handle to retrieve a voice pattern. Thevoiceclose function simply closes the interface associated with a voicehandle.

Commonly used text strings may be recorded with human voice. A method ofinputting text strings and associated human voice into the voicedatabase involves the using of a voice teleprompter 70 and inputinterface hardware 72. Some of the capabilities that the teleprompterinclude Play, Start, Stop, and Record. The voice teleprompter 70receives an HTree as input 74 and displays HTree segments on theteleprompter 70. A person whose voice is being recorded would read thetext strings as displayed by the teleprompter 70 and use the inputinterface hardware 72 to input his or her voice. Once the recording issatisfactory, the teleprompter sends the recording along with the textstring to the voice interface 60 for storage into the voice database 64.

Document Delivery Subsystem

The Document Delivery Subsystem provides a method for the caller torequest a document or a web page to be delivered via one of theavailable delivery methods such as delivery via fax, via e-mail, or viaregular postal service.

In delivering a document or web page via e-mail, the document or webpage may be formatted for ASCII, a selected word processing programformat, or another available format. In delivering a document or webpage via regular postal mail, the system will ask for the caller's nameand address if it is not already in a caller information database.

In delivering a document or web page via fax, once the TIFF files forall the requested documents have been retrieved or received, the filesare concatenated into one file and queued for transmission. The fax canbe sent to the caller right away if the caller has another phone lineconnected to a fax machine.

The document delivery subsystem operates like a queue where the queue isperiodically checked to see if there are any pending jobs. If there is apending job, a scheduling file that contains the time for delivery, themethod of delivery, and the file for delivery for each job is checked.If the transmission attempt is unsuccessful, the job will be rescheduledfor transmission at a later time. There is a limit on the number ofretries before the system administrator is notified. Appendix C attachedherein provides the specific details for the document deliverysubsystem.

Fax Data Management Subsystem

The Fax Data Management Subsystem (Fax DMS) interacts with the CMSI andDocument Delivery Subsystem through an interface called the faxinterface. Referring to FIG. 5, the fax interface 80 receives a URL 82and returns a TIFF formatted file 84. The fax interface 80 searches theFax database 86 for the corresponding TIFF file for the given URL. If aTIFF file is found, the fax interface retrieves the file and returns itto the requesting subsystem. If the requested file is not found in theFax database, the fax interface sends the URL to a URL-To-TIFF convertor88. The TIFF converter invokes a GUI browser 90 to retrieve the web pageor document if it has not already been retrieved and uses the browser toconvert the web page or document into a PostScript formatted file 92.The PostScript formatted file is then passed to a PostScript interpreter94 which creates a TIFF file 96 from the PostScript file. The TIFF fileis then passed back to the fax interface 80 and/or a fax database 86.Fax images can also be directly imported into the fax database throughthe use of a fax machine which creates an image capture file 100 forimport into the fax database. The image capture file 100 ensures thequality of an image and may compare favorably against TIFF formattedimages.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of thepresently preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that suchdisclosure is not to be interpreted as limiting. Various alterations andmodifications will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the artafter reading the above disclosure. Accordingly, it is intended that theappended claims be interpreted as covering all alterations andmodifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method for telephonically accessing and navigating a computernetwork, the method comprising: receiving a request transmitted from atelephone, the request comprising data signals that correspond to aunique address of a first data file residing on the computer network,and the first data file comprising a selectable element associated witha unique address of a second data file residing on the computer network;transmitting a response to the telephone that corresponds to text storedin the first data file; generating voice signals that correspond to theresponse; and signaling the selectable element contemporaneously withplayback of the voice signals to indicate the selectable element.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the computer network comprises the Internet.3. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving a request comprisesreceiving Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF) signals.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising converting the first data file from a firstformat to a second format.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein saidgenerating voice signals includes generating at least one of synthesizedvoice signals or recorded voice signals.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein said signaling the selectable element includes generating atleast one of a tone signal or a numeric voice message.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the selectable element includes a hyperlink thatcorresponds to the unique address of the second data file residing onthe computer network.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprisingreceiving a selection transmitted from the telephone, wherein theselection comprises data signals that correspond to the selectableelement.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein said receiving a selectioncomprises receiving Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF) signals.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request transmittedfrom the telephone to deliver the first data file via at least one ofvoice signals, facsimile, electronic mail message, or postal mailmessage.
 11. A method for telephonically accessing and navigating acomputer network, the method comprising: transmitting a requestcomprising data signals that correspond to a unique address of a firstdata file residing on the computer network, wherein the first data filecomprises a selectable element that corresponds to a unique address of asecond data file residing on the computer network; receiving a responsethat corresponds to text stored in the first data file; generating voicesignals that correspond to the response; and signaling the selectableelement contemporaneously with playback of the voice signals to indicatethe selectable element.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computernetwork comprises the Internet.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein saidtransmitting a request includes transmitting Dual Tone MultipleFrequency (DTMF) signals.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein saidgenerating voice signals includes generating at least one of synthesizedvoice signals or recorded voice signals.
 15. The method of claim 11,wherein said signaling the selectable element includes generating apredetermined audio signal.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein theselectable element includes a hyperlink that corresponds to the uniqueaddress of the second data file residing on the computer network. 17.The method of claim 16, further comprising selecting a hyperlink bytransmitting data signals that correspond to the hyperlink.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein said transmitting data signals thatcorrespond to the hyperlink includes transmitting Dual Tone MultipleFrequency (DTMF) signals.
 19. The method of claim 11, further comprisingtransmitting a request to receive the first data file via at least oneof voice signals, facsimile, electronic mail message, or postal mailmessage.
 20. A method for accessing and navigating a computer networkusing a voice communication device, the method comprising: receiving arequest transmitted from the voice communication device, the requestcomprising data signals that correspond to a unique address of a firstdata file residing on the computer network, and the first data filecomprising a selectable element that corresponds to a unique address ofa second data file residing on the computer network; transmitting aresponse to the voice communication device, wherein the responsecorresponds to text stored in the first data file; generating voicesignals that correspond to the response; and signaling the selectableelement contemporaneously with playback of the voice signals to indicatethe selectable element.